Gold Medal Diary: Inside the World's Greatest Sports Event

"""[Hayley Wickenheiser's] memories are more than just an array of hockey games, shifts good and bad and practices filled with the drudgery of constant drills. Wickenheiser is more than just a hockey player, and that's a good thing, because her complicated life outside the rink is more fascinating."" -- Winnipeg Free Press

A behind-the-scenes view of the world's most exciting sporting spectacle, from a multiple medal winner and Olympic veteran.

Hayley Wickenheiser is unarguably the best women's hockey player in the world. With four Olympic medals (three gold and one silver) she is the heart and soul of the Canadian team. Now thirty-one, Wickenheiser has been on the national team since she was fifteen and has played more games in international competition and has more goals, assists, and penalties than any other woman in the game. She's also held her own while playing professional hockey on men's teams in Sweden and Finland. In 2008 Sports Illustrated ranked Wickenheiser as Number 20 on a list of the Top 25 Toughest Athletes in the World. In Gold Medal Diary, Wickenheiser reveals her day-to-day experience of the 2010 Games, including the six-month lead-up of intensive training and pre-Olympic tournaments. The heart of this book, though, is what Wickenheiser reveals about the life of an Olympian-the behind-thescenes stories, the highs and lows, physical and emotional challenges, struggles and triumphs of an elite athlete in a hyperintense environment, including details of the public ceremonies and private moments, friendships and rivalries, community and isolation, media presence and security. For the first time ever, non-Olympic athletes can be on the ground inside the storied Athletes' Village and understand what it's like to live through the most high-pressure, high-profile sporting event in the world.

About the author (2010)

Hayley Wickenheiser is captain of the Canadian women’s hockey team and is arguably the best women’s hockey player in the world. Along with her four Olympic medals, she owns six World Cup gold medals and two silver, and was team MVP for two Olympic gold performances. Now thirty-one, Wickenheiser has played on the national team since she was fifteen, and has played more games in international competition and has more goals, assists, and penalties than any other woman in the game. Also an elite softball player, Wickenheiser played for Team Canada in the 2000 Summer Olympics and worked as a softball analyst for CBC at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In 2008, Sports Illustrated ranked her as Number 20 on a list of the Top 25 Toughest Athletes in the World.

Wickenheiser’s passion for sport is paralleled by her drive to give back to the community, in particular with organizations committed to youth such as KidSport, Dreams Take Flight, and Spread the Net. In May 2007, Wickenheiser traveled to Rwanda with other Canadian Olympic athletes for Right to Play, an athlete-driven humanitarian organization. Wickenheiser has also led numerous projects to raise the profile of women’s hockey around the world, and is a mentor for young athletes.

Wickenheiser was born in Shaunovan, Saskatchewan, where the local sportsplex has been renamed in her honour. She lives in Calgary, Alberta with her partner Tomas and son Noah, and where she is working towards a BSc at the University of Calgary.